A dig into the rich past of a tiny isle in the Aegean archipelago could soon answer one of the riddles of prehistoric archaeology: why the remote outcrop produced so many
of the flat-faced marble figurines that went on to inspire Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore.

Greek and British archaeologists hope their planned excavation will shed light on whether windswept Keros was a major sanctuary for the mysterious Cycladic civilisation
4,500 years ago. The tantalising suggestion that the uninhabited isle may have housed the gateway to the underworld has also not been ruled out.

"We really hope to find the answers to questions that have [provoked] a lot of study, a lot of debate," said Peggy Sotirakopoulou, a curator at Athens' Museum of Cycladic
Art. "This is a unique site. Nowhere in the Cyclades have the remains of so many marble figurines been found; figurines that were intentionally broken in antiquity, in quite
peculiar places, like the pelvis and chest."

Until its discovery by the modern art movement in the 20th century, Cycladic art was spurned by lovers of the classical period as the barbaric works of a primitive race. But
their influence on artists such as Picasso triggered a demand for early bronze age sites - and widespread looting.

Keros, perhaps more than any other in the barren island chain, was targeted in the 1950s and 1960s by plunderers intent on finding the naked, elongated figures. The
thousands of fragments of marble vases and figures that flooded the international antiquities market - and were so assiduously bought by museums and private collectors -
were known as the "Keros Hoard".

The looting, and the trail of destruction it left behind in an area known as Kavos Daskaleio, made the task of unravelling the enigmatic civilisation much more difficult. By
the second millennium BC the mariner-race was superseded by Crete and Mycenaean Greece; its elegant artworks and seafaring superiority soon forgotten.

Subsequent digs at Kavos Daskaleio, where a cave was also found, failed to reveal the secrets of the site or the purpose of the figurines, which could have depicted gods or
may simply have been children's toys.

But archaeologists hope their dig, which begins next week and includes an area of virgin ground, will both illuminate the island's role and explain why it was so much more
important than its bigger, less rugged neighbours. Some have mooted the idea that the finds not only filled graves but were removed with bones from cemeteries elsewhere
and reburied in Keros in front of the cave's mouth.

"It's still unclear whether it was an exceptionally rich cemetery or ritual site," said British archaeologist Lord Colin Renfrew, who will be co-leading the team. "We hope to
clarify the real nature of the site by finding a settlement. It is possible, but not yet certain, that [the breaking of the figurines] were ritual actions relating to ceremonies in
honour of the dead."

It's been called the project of the century: a mission to connect two continents with a $2.6bn rail-tunnel running deep beneath the Bosphorus Straits.

The idea of linking the two sides of Istanbul underwater was first dreamt of by Sultan Abdul Mecit 150 years ago.

Sure, the Turks invented everything

Quote:

Istanbul archaeologists have uncovered a 4th-Century port at the site where engineers plan to build a 21st-Century railway hub. The Marmaray project cannot even begin work in the area until excavations are complete.

Early civilizations in Crete, Cyprus and Greece, the Aegean and Near Eastern cultures, including the
Minoan, Mycenaean and Anatolian
civilizations, are the fundamental
building blocks of early European
history. Historians used to think that
these cultures have traded with
Egypt’s New Kingdom.

However, new radiocarbon dating
shows that these civilizations actually
existed 100 years earlier. Instead of Egypt, they were probably interacting with
the Canaanites, a culture that occupied the Levant, a region that today includes
Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

Imagine if the chronology of early American history were off by 100 years, and it was really 1392 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Scholars have long argued over the possibility of a time discrepancy of similar magnitude for a crucial period in the Late Bronze Age of Greece and the Aegean world.

Chinese archaeologists have
unearthed some 30 beheaded skeletons dating back more than 2,000 years
in central China's Henan Province, a cradle of the Chinese civilization.

The skeletons were obviously warriors, the tallest of whom was at least
1.85 meters, said Sun Xinmin, head of the Henan Provincial Institute of
Cultural Heritage and Archeology.

The human remains were found scattered in a pit in the city of Xinzheng,
adjacent to a major battlefield where State Qin overthrew State Han
toward the end of the Warring States Period (475 to 221 BC), said Sun...

Sun said the skeletons must have belonged to soldiers of State Han and
their heads were likely taken by the Qin warriors who intended to receive
a promotion based on the number of enemy troops they killed.

Some of the skeletons still disclose evidence of being slashed by by
broadswords and many were burned, he said...

Three of the skeletons were found crouching on the top of one another
and Sun suspected they had been buried alive before they were beheaded.